NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-22-2024 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 22, 2024

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In 1987, a young black man named Ben Spencer was convicted of a brutal murder in Texas, but there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. And he had an alibi, but that didn't matter. It's hard to overcome a dead white guy who's killed by two black men. Follow Ben's 30-year fight for justice. Listen now to the Sunday story on the Up First Podcast. Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Duah Lisi Kautao. Ukraine is facing diplomatic pressure from European countries over a decision to cut

off the flow of cheap Russian natural gas at the end of this year. Despite Russia's invasion nearly three years ago, gas still flows through pipelines that cross Ukraine, N appears Brian Mann reports. During a visit to Brussels, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed he won't extend a deal that currently allows Russian gas to flow through Ukraine despite the bitter war. Here's Zelensky speaking through an interpreter. We would not prolong the transit of Russian gas. We will not give the possibility of additional billions to be earned on our blood, on the lives of our citizens."

At least three European countries, including Austria, still rely heavily on low-cost Russian gas. Slovakia has protested Ukraine's decision, and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a press conference he's mediating talks, hoping to extend the deal, which expires in 10 days. Brian Manon, NPR News, Kyiv. There's widespread relief among many that the federal government is not shut down, for now, until at least mid-March. When President Biden signed the stopgap bill into law yesterday, it ended a raucous week on Capitol Hill. NPR Morrow License says what the week's events show is that President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk have tremendous power over Republicans in Congress and

We also learned that bipartisanship is not dead speaker Mike Johnson still had to rely on Democrats to keep the government from shutting down We know that his tiny majority in Congress will be even tinier, at least for a while, starting in January. We also learned that Trump sometimes backs down. He isn't threatening anymore to primary the 38 Republicans who voted against his debt ceiling bill or to push recess appointments through the Senate. Nevada election officials say they investigated a record number of allegations of voter fraud this year. Activists across the country had flooded election administrators in various swing states with

reports of alleged violations. But as NPR's Ashley Lopez reports, those efforts led to minimal confirmed cases in Nevada. Nevada's secretary of state's office says election officials received a major increase in reports of alleged voting violations ahead of the election. As of September, officials received 527 reports this year. That's compared to just 44 last year. So far, only four actual violations were found by state investigators, and almost 500 cases so far have been closed without civil or criminal charges. Nevada was one of several closely

watched swing states that dealt with an influx of scrutiny from activists challenging the results of the 2020 election. Nevada officials say this was the first election cycle where they had to hire a dedicated investigative team to look into a record number of election reports. Ashley Lopez, NPR News. This is NPR. New details are emerging about the Saudi suspect in Germany's latest Christmas market attack that killed at least five people, including a child. The Associated Press reports that local government officials were aware of previous alleged criminal acts by the 50-year-old who has not publicly been named by police. Authorities were reportedly aware of threats he made over medical examination results from a decade earlier.

The doctor was apparently a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy and is now in detention being investigated by police. The baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Ricky Henderson has died. And Henderson stole more bases than anyone else during his career. Suni Khalid from member station KALW in San Francisco has more. A native Oaklander, the flamboyant Henderson went from playing on local sand lots to a 25-year career in the major leagues, which included two stints with his hometown Oakland A's.

Regarded as one of the greatest leadoff hitters ever, Henderson held several major league records, including 1,406 stolen bases and nearly 2,300 runs scored. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009. Henderson's death was announced in a statement Saturday by his wife, Pamela. She said her husband would be remembered as a devoted son, dad, friend, grandfather, brother, uncle and a truly humble soul. He died just days before his 66th birthday on Christmas.

For NPR News, I'm Sunni Khalid in San Francisco. And I'm Dwahili Saikow-Tau.